Thursday, March 24, 2022

Inhabitants of Mariupol forcibly deported to Russia


 About 15 thousand Mariupol's inhabitants have been selected by the Russian occupation forces for illegal deportation to Russian territory, so far about 6,000 have been deported. people - Mariupol city council on Telegram said on Thursday.

15,000 are about half of the inhabitants who are currently located in the left-bank part of Mariupol. The occupiers force the people, exhausted by the war, to board evacuation buses. There are reports that the Russians are taking Ukrainian passports and other identity documents from these people, - Mariupol authorities said in a press release.

It was also reported that people intended for deportation initially go to the so-called filtration camps, and then are transported to "remote cities in Russia". 

The actions of the Russian occupiers are difficult to explain. Initially, they block a peaceful city, then they start deliberately murdering civilians, and then forcibly transporting residents to their territory. Ukraine experienced something like this only during World War II, but this history repeats itself - assessed the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko.

We are developing a list of people deported to Russia and we will work for their return to Ukraine - added Boychenko.

At the beginning of World War II, around 800,000 Polish citizens were deported deep into the Soviet Union from territory occupied by the Soviets. Thousands did not return to the country. The deportees included families of military personnel, officials, forestry, and railroad service workers from the eastern areas of pre-war Poland.